I've read Kundera's Farewell Waltz, Oscar Wilde's Nightingale and the Rose, The Happy Prince, and The Fisherman and His Soul, and still very much in the exciting midst of Charles Dickens' Hard Times, and bordering on Russel's The History of Western Philosophy (which is what I would say is an 'up' level to Sophie's World).

I didn't know that I knew Oscar Wilde since young. I didn't know he was a children's book writer. I didn't know he was the one who wrote The Portrait of Dorian Gray. More so, I didn't know that I had actually read The Happy Prince before, and love the story as a child. So much that I did not know about Oscar Wilde except that he was someone well-known in the literature world. Now I know him slightly better, and love his works even more. There's clear beauty in between the lines, muddled by sadness. It is this sadness that I don't take akin to. I wish he would write something of a happier tone.

Kundera is not my cup of tea, admittedly. He writes simply, like Coelho, but his writings do not strike any life philosophy chord in me. It amazes me though how much he can seep into the subconscious of others and bring out those thoughts. Every action represents something, and that is scary. What goes on in the mind of others? one may start to wonder. This is one writing technique that I admire in the works of some authors. However, there is a dark side that I don't feel comfortable with - yes, the way he would describe sex. The very same reason why I did not finish 100 Years of Solitude. Kundera was smart or nice enough to keep it until the end; by then, I read too much to stop and not know who died in the end. It wasn't unreasonably explicit, but at the same time, it isn't much required, I think. Then again, if authors today were just to write "the girl slept with so-and-so", their books may just not sell. Same with movies.

Oh, to take side once more with my classical readings... Next book in mind to read would be To Kill a Mocking Bird, but first I shall have to hunt it down in the national library.

posted by lil piggie at 11:20 PM